"A full-length feature with many documentary elements follows eight
immigrant couples in Singapore who play scenes from their lives, often
shot in their small dwellings. These immigrants are the basis of
Singapore's success, but get the hardest knocks when things go wrong.

A
film with an unusual length and an unusual form. It's twice as long as a
normal feature and made in two parts (Drought and Flood). It's not a documentary, but has
many elements of one. The film follows eight couples of immigrants in
today's Singapore. In this way, a lot is made clear about the political
and social situation of Singapore, of which the flourishing economy is
largely dependent on guest workers. Instead of interviewing the
immigrants, the film maker has them play scenes from their own lives. A
fiction film, but much more realistic than usual.

Another fictional
element in the film is the introduction of a water crisis in Singapore.
It's the immigrants who have most problems with this. For a large part,
the film is set in the small dwellings where the various immigrant
couples live. And also in other regards, the film maker works down to
the square centimetre." - Gertjan Zuilhof, Rotterdam International Film Festival

"This 184-minute experimental docudrama is divided into 2 parts (Drought and Flood) and compiled from an
art installation that was shown at the Singapore Biennale. It deals
with eight couples, mostly living in Singapore's HDB apartments. They
are various nationalities and ethnic backgrounds -- Mainland Chinese,
Indian, Malaysian, Filipino, Thai, Italian, Singaporean and pan-Asian.
The backdrop for their stories is a water shortage that is gripping the
city and causes everyone a lot of anxiety about the economy and living
in Singapore. Even when it's raining, people are still short of water
because there is no capacity to capture the seasonal heavy downpours.
Many want to get out, but have no place else to go. Others want to get
in, and will do almost anything for citizenship. They sit around in
their apartments and talk. Their stories are surreal, but amazingly they
are based, at least in part, on real-life situations.

In FLOOD, probably the
weirdest episode is also different because it is the only one not set in
the HDB flats -- it's in a grand house with a swimming pool, showing
the great disparity between the wealthy and the ordinary. And they are
Thai characters. This soap-opera episode involves a young man who
arrives at the house. The lady tells him to wear women's clothing when
he sleeps, because many Thai men in Singapore have died from
sleeping-death syndrome, thought to be caused by a ghost that preys on
men. Does the ghost get him?" - Wise Kwai, Bangkok World Film Festival.